Peter Piper Picked a Peck!

Peter Piper picking that peck of pickled peppers has nothing on me..I actually pickled those peppers! Somehow I seemed to have planted a whole lot more hot peppers than Bell Peppers this year. In all, there are some thirty pepper plants but the bigger lot of these are a strange assortment of the hot variety. In the garden, all of these are doing quite well and I have dried a number of the fruit. The dried peppers will be strung and hung or stored in jars for later use. I grew tired of impaling the peppers on the metal skewers. The smell of the air-drying peppers did keep the sinuses clear but I was forever having to tell visitors to "don't touch". Even though it was quite apparent that these were of the hot sort..they were like a magnet to curious onlookers. Everyone wanted to "feel" the drying peppers! Not too smart as even dried peppers can burn the skin and eyes. This said, I needed a different approach to preserving my peppers which led to today's task. Actually, the procedure started yesterday with the washing, piercing and soaking the peppers. Before pickling, they required soaking in a salt-water brine for about eighteen hours. The piercing (cutting slits in the sides) allows for the salt brine and later vinegar to seep inside the pepper. Uh huh...yep, I just want to hold multiple of hot peppers and cut slits in them. Perhaps one of the curious folks that were adamant about handling the drying peppers would volunteer for the job. Not one could be found that would take the task. I looked for a pair of latex gloves..none of those could be found either. Oh well, I am not very adept while wearing gloves anyway and would have probably pierced the hand and not the pepper. Ingenuity came into play! I used tongs! Grasping the pepper with the tongs, I was able to stab it with the knife blade straight through the slot in the the tongs! Ahhh..that worked! The stabbing went quickly once I discovered the new method! After soaking overnight, I was ready to pickle! Now where were all of the folks that wanted to handle the peppers? Not one could be found to take the task. I had to pack the peppers into the jars. I tried the tongs again! Trying to maneuver the peppers into the jar with tongs proved impossible. Just imagine trying to play that Claw Machine in the front of the store. You know, the one where there is a cute stuffed panda that your kid "just has to have" and the object is to pick it up with the mechanical claw and drop it in the chute. Yeah..that was me with tongs and hot peppers..it wasn't working. With no gloves, I was in a quandary! Then a thought! Improvise! I searched the cabinet for a plastic baggie! After slipping my hand into the baggie, I was able to pack the jars quite nicely! Aha! I am smarter than the average Habanero Pepper! Into the jars went the Habaneros, Jalapenos, Chilis and Hot Banana Peppers! Such a pretty assortment..greens, yellows, oranges and reds..all made for a beautiful jar! The rest of the canning was easy! Now there are jars of hot peppers ready to go on the shelf. Later, during Winter, the peppers will be used in pots of chili as a cold weather warmer!

Speaking of greens, yellows, oranges and reds...the Fall decorations are going up nicely! I decorated the stair rails with garlands of Fall leaves. These are crepe paper leaves that I picked up at the local dollar store. They are single leaves which seem to work better than the artificial garlands merely because of the storage problem. I can flatten and store these all in a small shoebox size box versus the large containers of garland. Being as the Bayou House is sort of rustic, the entryway has acquired decorations with real gourds, dried grasses and more Fall leaves. Now..I still have to find a place for my Scarecrow Family!